Yes, it was Kaan’s twelfth birthday
this week. Can’t believe that my ‘baby’
is almost a teenager (there’s something to look forward to – having two stroppy
adolescent boys around the house!)
Although his birthday is the 9th January, we didn’t actually take him
‘home’ (he was born in St Thomas’ London) until the end of
February as he was 11 weeks premature.
Here is how he was then….
He is now just over 5feet tall and
you would never guess that he weighed 3lb 3oz when he was born! Here he is with his ‘bicycle’ cake…
He hasn’t been able to go to school
on his bike this week, as the weather has been absolutely awful. We have had storm-force winds, thunder and
lightning and a lot of rain – so much that we were having problems dealing with
it in the hotel. As we are lower than
the surrounding plots, we not only get what rains on us but also a lot coming
in from those higher areas. The system
that channels the water round the outside of the pool and into the pool tanks
works alright but there is also some seepage into the pool engine room and when
it was raining hard the small submersible pump couldn’t get rid of the water
fast enough.
Finally on Tuesday Cem bought a
petrol-powered pump which can get rid of the water much faster and which will
also keep going during a power-cut – the other thing which has caused us
problems in the past. This winter we
seem to have had more power cuts than for the last few years, sometimes lasting
a couple of hours. That’s pretty
annoying when we pay such a fortune for electricity. Our last MONTHLY bill at home was 270tl –
just about £100 – and the hotel bill, even in the winter months, is never less
than about 400tl.
Actually, there has been a bit of a
scandal concerning the electricity company which might (not holding my breath)
result in us getting some money back.
Due to the remoteness of much of the eastern parts of Turkey and the
wiliness of the residents, many people – often whole villages – do not pay for
electricity but ‘steal’ it by stringing up illegal lines. To cover their losses in those areas, the
electricity board has been charging us a tax on our bills - maybe only a couple
of lira for a normal household but as it is worked as a percentage of the
total, it amounts to a lot of money on the huge summer bills at the hotel. I might just about understand it if the
electricity board was still government owned, but it was privatized about 5
years ago and I don’t see why we should be penalized for the fact that they cannot
do their job efficiently. One man
finally stood up to them and has taken a case to court so we are hoping that he
wins and we will be able to claim back this money.
And it’s not only electricity that
is expensive here…I’ve just seen in National Geographic a comparison of petrol
prices from last year – dollars per gallon.
Turkey is the leader
IN THE WORLD, at 10.02, UK
second at 8.39, while in America
they pay 4 dollars a gallon. Since in Turkey most
things are delivered by road (there is not much of a rail network), this adds
to the cost of all goods. Our meat,
chicken and cheese all cost more than in the UK
and USA. Electrical goods have always been much more
expensive here and cars – well don’t even get me started on the cost of cars!
So how come we are still seen as a
‘cheap’ holiday destination…..?!!
